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Todd ArcherApr 13, 2026, 06:00 AM ET<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>Todd Archer is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Dallas Cowboys. Archer has covered the NFL since 1997 and Dallas since 2003. He joined ESPN in 2010.<\/p>\n Multiple Authors<\/p>\n FRISCO, Texas — The 2026 NFL draft<\/a> (8 p.m. ET on ESPN, ABC, ESPN App) will start on April 23 in Pittsburgh. The Dallas Cowboys<\/a> are scheduled to make eight of the draft’s 257 picks<\/a> starting with the No. 12 overall pick in the first round on Thursday night.<\/p>\n During the three-day event (Rounds 2-3 on April 24 and Rounds 4-7 on April 25), we will update this page with analysis on every pick.<\/p>\n A full list of Cowboys’ selections are below, in addition to positional needs.<\/p>\n NFL draft coverage: Round 1: No. 12 overall<\/p>\n Round 1: No. 20<\/p>\n Round 3: No. 92<\/p>\n Round 4: No. 112<\/p>\n Round 5: No. 152<\/p>\n Round 5: No. 177<\/p>\n Round 5: No. 180<\/p>\n Round 7: No. 218<\/p>\n Top three needs<\/a>: LB, edge, CB<\/p>\n The Cowboys didn’t answer all of their defensive questions in free agency. Even if they add a middle linebacker with a trade or signing, they’ll need depth. Though they traded for Rashan Gary<\/a>, their other projected starter on the edge, Donovan Ezeiruaku<\/a>, is coming off hip surgery and will be limited during the offseason. They added Cobie Durant<\/a> at cornerback, but they have to be mindful of the health of DaRon Bland<\/a> and Shavon Revel Jr<\/a>. The draft still has to be about helping the defense in every way.<\/p>\n Are the Cowboys definitely going to go defense with both of their first-round picks?<\/p>\n Definitely? With Jerry Jones? Nothing is definite. The Cowboys know they must address the defense, and the best way to do that is with their two first-round picks. They must find a linebacker, cornerback and pass rusher in this draft. But the Cowboys had similar defensive needs in 2020 and ended up with receiver CeeDee Lamb<\/a> in Round 1. He was a top-10-graded player on their board and too much of a “blinking light” to pass up at No. 17. That’s the only scenario where the Cowboys go with an offensive player at either No. 12 or 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Todd ArcherApr 13, 2026, 06:00 AM ET CloseTodd Archer is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[7,6,84],"class_list":{"0":"post-865624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-playoffs","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-nfl-playoffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116398543632400667","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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